Seiichi Miyamoto - 2013 Rio Grande Basin Initiative Meeting - Texas ...

Task 8 Basin Wide Hydrology & Salinity
Subprojects: Simulating Flow and Salinity of the
middle reach of the Pecos
Investigators: S. Miyamoto and Cairo Okoren, TAES
Collaboration: Texas Cooperative Extension
State Soil & Water Conservation Board
Inter. Water & Boundary Commission
Project Objectives
1. Evaluate salinity trends.
2. Identify the causes, including salt sources.
3. Simulate flow and salinity of the Pecos River in
Texas.
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(photo by Dr. Hart)

The Rio Grande Basins above Amistad
1. The upper Rio Grande
Basin (Colorado, NM,
West TX)
2. The Pecos Sub-basin
(New Mexico, West
Texas)
3. Rio Conchos Subbasin
(old Mexico)
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Accomplishments:
1. Tentatively identified geological sources of
salts entering the Pecos River.
RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY OF SALT SOURCES AND
LOADING INTO THE PECOS RIVER
Elephant Butte
Reservoir
Closed
Basin
El Paso
Chain Lake 261 K/tons per
year
Pecos
River
Malaga Bend 162
Red Bluff
G. Falls-Girvin 175
S. Miyamoto, Fasong Yuan, and Shilpa Anand
Texas A&M University Agricultural Research Center at El Paso
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
In cooperation with
Will Hatler and Alyson McDonald Gilbert Anaya and Wayne Belzer
Texas Cooperative Extension International Boundary & Water
at Fort Stockton Commission, U.S. Section
Fort
Quitman
Girvin
Ojinaga
Presidio
Foster Ranch
Devil's
River
Rio Conchos
Presa Luis Leon
Amistad
Reservoir
Francisco I.
Madero
La Boquilla
A Reconnaissance Report Submitted to
Texas State Soil and Conservation Board and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
In Partial Fulfillment of
A contract TSSWCB No. 04-11 and US EPA, No. 4280001
TR - 291
December 2005
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2. Identified main causes of salinity
increase at Red Bluff.
o
o
o
Brine intrusion
from geological
formations
Reduced flow and
dilution
High evaporation
from shallow
reservoir storage
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3. Evaluated the impact of tributary salt
loading on salinity of Amistad Reservoir.
1969 - 89
Salt Flow
Mt/y % Mm 3 /y %
Conchos 0.76 (41) 909 (44)
Pecos 0.54 (29) 274 (13)
MRG 0.35 (19) 169 (8)
Devils 0.19 (10) 711 (35)
INFLUENCE OF TRIBUTARIES ON SALINITY OF
AMISTAD INTERNATIONAL RESERVOIR
S. Miyamoto, Fasong Yuan and Shilpa Anand
Texas A&M University Agricultural Research Center at El Paso
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
Since 1990, the flow and salt
loading from Rio Conchos are
down.
An Investigatory Report Submitted to
Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board and
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
In a partial fulfillment of 5
A contract TSSWCB, No. 04-11 and US EPA, No. 4280001

4. Identified main causes of salinity increase
at Amistad.
1000
o Salinity increased from
560 to nearly 1000
ppm in 1988, then
1995
Salinity, mg L -1
800
600
a
Flow-weighted
Arithmetic
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Salinity
o 1988 surge : salt
flushing from the MRG
o 1995 surge: drought in
Rio Conchos
Inflow, bill m 3 /y
400
5.0 1952.00 b 1962.00 1972.00 1982.00 Storage 1992.00 2002.00
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Inflow into Amistad
1952 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002
Year
6

Salininization of Riparian Zones
Providing salt storage,
and release during bank
overflow and vegetation
transformation.
Salt Balance, million ton year -1
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
a
Caballo-El P aso
El P aso -P residio
-0 4
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5. Develop a model to predict monthly
salinity of outflow from inflow and storage
data, and applied to Red Bluff.
WATER BALANCE, SALT LOADING, AND SALINITY
CONTROL OPTIONS OF RED BLUFF RESERVOIR, TEXAS
S. Miyamoto, Fasong Yuan, and Shilpa Anand
Texas A&M University Agricultural Research Center at El Paso
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station
and
Texas Water Resources Institute
The Texas A&M University System
TR - 298
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Current Activities
1. Flow and salt transport analyses
Red Bluff and Girvin
Type A
Floodplain Stream
Floodplain
Base model: Routing
model (ROTO) in SWAT
Q B0
Q E
Q ET
Modifications:
Channel shape
Interactions with G.W.
Targets: Estimate of
bank overflow and salinity
Q P
Type B
Riparian Stream Riparian
Q E
Q B0 Q ET
Q P
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2. Initiated riparian modeling.
o
Two-dimensional
o
Water balance
o
Salt balance
o
Impact of salinization
on growth and ET of
riparian vegetation.
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Potential Benefits
1. Help develop salinity control strategies
for the Pecos River and the Rio
Grande between El Paso to Amistad.
2. Help assess the long-term water
management strategies on salinity of
the stream, the riparian zones, and
Amistad Reservoir.
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Future Plan
Continue with what we started.
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